On the Pollen Harvest Mellifera L.) Near Tucson, Arizona
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On the Pollen Harvest by the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Near Tucson, Arizona (1976-1981) Item Type Article Authors O'Neal, Robert J.; Waller, Gordon D. Publisher University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) Journal Desert Plants Rights Copyright © Arizona Board of Regents. The University of Arizona. Download date 06/10/2021 16:00:38 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/552253 O'Neal and Waller Honey Bee Pollen Harvest 81 Summary Near Tucson, Arizona, the pollen harvest by colonies of On The Pollen Harvest Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) was monitored with pollen traps. This influx was analyzed at 11 apiaries for 1 -3 years and by the Honey Bee (Apis 1 apiary for 5 years. Profiles of pollen influx show an apparent sensitivity to both the composition of nearby vegetation and mellifera L.) Near the seasonality of pollen production. The pollen influx from taxa most important in the pollen diet of colonies at one of the apiaries was diagrammed, providing the first detailed Tucson, Arizona account of pollen diets of Honey Bees. Most pollen could have been obtained within several (1976-1981) kilometers of the colonies, yet bees flew at least 12 km to obtain Brassica pollen. At another apiary, Manzanita (Arctostaphylos) pollen was collected 9 km from the hive. One colony on a mountain at 2438 m elevation utilized Robert J. O'Neall Mesquite (Prosopis), the nearest of which was 850 m lower in and Gordon D. Waller elevation and 5.6 km to the north. There were two major periods of pollen influx for colonies U.S.D.A., Agricultural Research Service foraging within the desert plant communities near Tucson: 1) Carl Hayden Bee Research Center February through June, and 2) August through October. Tucson, Arizonan Weights of pollen harvests made by colonies at one apiary for 4 years from 6 species of winter ephemerals were shown to be highly correlated with winter rainfall. The linear regression of total ephemeral pollen yield on total precipita- tion from November through April indicated that 76 mm of total precipitation had to be exceeded before pollen was harvested from the 6 ephemerals. Honey Bees utilized anemophilous pollen in this study to a far greater extent than would be expected for other bees. Stores of honey apparently enabled colonies to harvest such pollen since anemophilous plants are characteristically nectar- less. Anemophilous pollen contributed from 9% to 24% of the annual pollen harvest during three years at one apiary in this study. At another apiary, colonies depended upon anemophi- lous pollen for 71% of their pollen diet during the first half (April 1 to July 22) of the flowering season. The ability of the Honey Bee to exploit anemophilous pollen enlarged its poten- tial food base, insured greater reliability in pollen income, and probably increased the inhabitable range of this bee. Fluctuations of pollen harvests encountered in this study were compared with those at other latitudes. At high latitudes (45-65°) there proved to be a unimodal pulse in pollen availability during the year. At somewhat lower latitudes (30- 45°), the pulse was found to be bimodal. The data from temperate latitudes suggested that a global wave of potential flowering existed which completed one oscillation between poles each year, reaching the high latitudes once annually but passing through the mid -latitudes twice annually. Abundance- diversity curves of the annual pollen diet sets of Honey Bee colonies at Tanque Verde, and at 3 other localities in the northern temperate latitudes, each had log- normal distributions. The data sets from the Tanque Verde apiary, compared with published data from England, Wales, and Kansas, indicated overall greater diversity in the Tanque Verde pollen assemblages. In relative proportions contributed, 'Present address Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado the two top- ranked species of each of the three other localities 2072, Balboa, Rep. de Panama, APO Miami 34002. contributed more to Honey Bee diets than did the two top - 2Mailing address: 2000 E. Allen Rd., Tucson, AZ 85719. ranked species at Tanque Verde. 82 Desert Plants 6 (2) 1984 Introduction Table 1. Most of these studies present either the seasonal Bees (Hymenoptera, Superfamily Apoidea), with the excep- influx of pollen or the proportion of pollen contributed by tion of some cleptoparasitic or necrophagous species (Schwarz, various plant species at each time interval. Only Synge 1948: 106, Roubik, 1982a), derive their nutrition from nectar, (1947), Percival (1947), and Rashad and Parker (1956) col- pollen and plant oils (Spencer- Booth, 1960; Wahl, 1963; lected data continuously for at least one year and, with the Haydak, 1970; Vogel, 1974). For most bees, pollen is the major pollen analyzed for each sample, presented estimates of the source of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and min- annual contribution by each plant species to the colonies' erals. Many species of bees, in order to provision their nests, pollen diet. harvest pollen from only one to several species of plants Both the total influx of pollen and the annual contribu- while the pollen diets of other bees, especially long -lived or tion by each plant taxon are useful bits of information for perennial highly social species, include many plant taxa comparative analysis. Yet, few comparative analyses have (Michener, 1979; Roubik and Michener, 1980). The bee with been made of the pollen harvests by Honey Bee colonies in the largest pollen diet breadth is the Honey Bee, Apis different years at the same locality, and no regionalcom- mellifera L.It harvests pollen from virtually all taxa of parisons have been made of Honey Bee pollen diets at spermatophytes (Schmalzel, 1980). With its present cosmo- different latitudes or in different types of vegetation. politan distribution it has access to most of the world's In this paper we examine the contribution that analysis terrestrial flora. of Honey Bee pollen diets (melittopalynology) can make to Not only does the Honey Bee utilize the largest spectrum the study of Honey Bee ecology and to an understanding of of plants for food of any species of bee, but it also harvests several parameters of flowering events. The results of large quantities of pollen and is one of the most ubiquitous monitoring closely the pollen diets of colonies in southern pollen feeders in the world today. Estimates of the amount of pollen consumed annually by a Honey Bee colony range from 15 to 55 kg (Spencer- Booth, 1960). In the United States alone, Table 1. Studies that have utilized pollen traps to monitor the where the population of Honey Bee colonies is at least 4.16 x pollen harvest by honey bees. 106 (U.S.D.A., 1.976), Honey Bees are harvesting between 62 Authors Location Type of Study' and 228 x 106 kg of pollen annually. Todd and Bishop (1940) California a Throughout most of the foraging season, the pollen brought into a Honey Bee colony is rapidly used in brood -rearing. This Eckert (1 942) California a is especially apparent from data on the Honey Bee in the Whitcomb (1944) Louisiana a tropics (Smith, 1960; Winston, 1980), the subtropics (Kauffeld, Stapel and Eriksen (1944) Denmark b 1980), and to a lesser extent in the temperate regions (Jebsen, 1952; Jeffree and Allen, 1957). If most pollen is rapidly Todd and Bishop (1946) California a converted to bee biomass within a colony, the rate of brood Hare and Vansell (1946) Utah a, b2 production should be positively correlated with the rate at Synge (1947) England c which pollen is harvested by the colony (pollen influx). Both Percival (1947) Wales c Nolan (1925: 25) and Betts (1928) indicated that pollen influx was largely responsible for observed brood cycles of Honey Anonymous (1947) England b Bee colonies. Harris and Filmer (1948) New Zealand b Neoptropical social bees show similar patterns (Roubik, Vansell and Todd (1949) western U.S.A. a3 1982b). Todd and Bishop (1946) graphically showed that brood production followed the pollen influx at Davis, Hirschfeldcr (1951) Germany a California. Maurizio (1953) Switzerland c A pollen trap on a hive is the most direct means of Rashad and Parker (1956) Kansas c monitoring the influx of pollen into a Honey Bee colony. Louveaux (1958, 1959) France a The trap operates simply by dislodging pollen pellets (_ corbicular loads or bee baskets) from the hind legs of Moriya (1960) Japan b Honey Bees as they enter the hive. A variety of pollen traps Thompson (1960) Arkansas a have been invented (see review by Crane, 1976). Traps that Olsen (1975) Michigan b are highly efficient must be rotated about once a week Adams et al. (1978) Ontario b between colonies so that brood production in each colony can be sustained. A trap that intercepts about 50% or less Kauffeld (1980) Louisiana a of the incoming pellets does not appear to lower the Ramirez (1980) Costa Rica a colony's population (Waller et al., 1981) and can be used to Severson and Parry (1981) Wisconsin b continuously monitor the pollen influx into one colony for at least a year. The invention of the pollen trap occurred ' a: the seasonal influx of pollen into the pollen trap b: an analysis of the proportion of pollen contributed by various almost 50 years ago. It is curious that few records of pollen plant species at each time interval influx into Honey Bee colonies have been published, c: both a and b considering the obvious utility of influx records in apicul- 2 samples taken for only 22 days ture and in research on the foraging behavior and ecology of this animal. Studies that have used pollen traps to 3 most records probably incomplete monitor the pollen harvest by Honey Bees are listed in 4 pollen influx not methodically sampled each day 111 e lo o 10 11111111111 210 Mi les 10 0 101 2.0 Illllllll u Kilometers Figure 1.